"Oak in Spring" 1930 American Impressionist oil painting, oak tree landscape
By Henry Cooke White
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Oak in Spring" is a 1930 American Impressionist oil painting of an oak tree landscape. Painted en plein-air, in an almost pointillist style, H.C. White depicts a classic Connecticut landscape. A Tall wiry tree stands as the focal point, having just bloomed its first leaves; foliage still thin enough to outline every single branch. Reds and browns scattered throughout the foreground connote autumn leaves that had yet to be cleared. Henry Cooke White (b. 1861) in Hartford Connecticut. His career in art was founded at the age of 14, when he met the famous American Tonalist painter, Dwight William Tyron. The two became lifelong friends, and White even wrote Tyron’s major biography, The Life and Art of Dwight William Tyron (pub. 1930). In the late 1880’s, Tyron pushed White to move to New York City to further his artistic training at the Art Students League. During this time, White studied under many talented artist’s; Kenyon Cox, John H. Twatchman, and William Merritt Chase. From 1896-1897, White spent time travelling in Europe. Upon his return to the states, he began to spend most of his time in Connecticut, following his favorite painting seasons. Spring in Hartford was followed a week later by spring in Old Lyme, and then finally at Waterford. He’d experience his favorite seasons three times over each year. Once immersed into Connecticut’s community, White was encouraged to paint habitually in Old Lyme; where an art colony was developing, beginning in the spring of 1903. Inspired by European artists, including Claude Monet, and Pierre Auguste-Renoir, the Old Lyme Art Colony defined American Impressionism by memorializing the serene qualities of rural New England life through use of vibrant palettes and broken strokes on wood and canvas. The Colony comprised upwards of 200 artists during its three decades of creating nature-based scenes in oils and pastels; Frederick Childe Hassam...
Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Henry Cooke White Art
Canvas, Oil
